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DIRECTED  BY 

The  Department  of  Church  and  Country  Life 

BOARD  OF  HOME  MISSIONS  OF  THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH 
IN  THE  U.  S.  A. 

Warren  H.  Wilson,  Director 
Ralph  A,  Felton,  Field  Director 

i  )  56  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York 

)3 

;7 


3R  555  .03  P67 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the 

U.S.A.  Board  of  Home 
Ohio  rural  life  survey 


9ltitt6or?  Council 


W.  O.  Thompson,  Chairman, 
President,  Ohio  State  University 
President,  Oliio  Church  Federation 
Columbus,  Ohio 

J.  O.  Ashenhurst,  Secretary, 
Committee   on    Rural   Churches,    United 
Presbyterian  Chxurch 

George  F.  Bareis, 
Chairman,  Board  of  Trustees, 
Heidelberg  College 

Edward  Bvers,  A.M.,  Sc.  D. 
School  of  Education,  Defiance  College 


I.  J.  CahiU, 
Sec'y,  Ohio  Chrli 


stian  Missionary  Society 

H.  J.  Christman,  President, 
Central  Theological  Seminary 

W.  G.  Clippinger,  President, 
Otterbein  University 

Charles  Wm.  Dabney.  President, 
University  of  Cincinnati 

G.  Walter  Fiske,  Junior  Dean, 
Oberlln  Theological  Seminary 

L.  H.  Goddard,  Chief, 

Dept.     Cooperation,     Ohio     Experiment 

Station 

A.  B.  Graham,  Superintendent  of 
Agricultural  Extension,  Ohio  State  Unly. 

George  J.  Henderson, 

Supt.  Central  District.:  American  S.S.  Union 

Walter  H.  Houston, 

Supt.  Presbjrterlan  Home  Missions, 

Synod  of  Ohio 

C.  W.  Kurtz, 

Presiding  Elder,  United  Brethren  Church 

Frederick  C.  Landsittel, 

State   Normal   College.    Ohio   University 

Charles  Marston, 

Pastor,  Presbyterian  Church,  Mlllersburg. 

Ohio 

E.  A.  MiUer, 
Oberlln  College 

T.  Knox  Montgomery,  President, 
Muskingum  College 

S.  K.  Mosiman,  President, 
Central  Mennonlte  College 

J.  O.  Notestein, 
University  of  Wooster 

W.  W.  MiUs, 

Chairman.   Board  of  Trustees,   Marietta 

College 


H.  C.  Price,  Dean, 

College  of  Agriculture,  Ohio  State  Univ. 

O.  W.  Powers, 

Home  Mission  Sec'y,  Christian  Church 
President,  Ohio  State  Christian  Association 

C.  J.  Rose,  Secretary, 
Ohio  Baptist  Convention 

£.  S.  Rothrock, 

State  Superintendent,  Congregational 

Conference  of  Ohio 

B.  R.  Ryall, 

Secretary,  Y.  M.  O.  A.  of  Ohio, 

County  Work  Dept. 

A.  C.  Shuman, 

Pastor,  Reformed  Church,  Tiffin,  O. 

J.  K.  Shellenberger, 

Sec'y  of  the   Brouierhood,    Disciples    of 

Christ 

Worthington  B.  Slutz, 

District  Supt.,  Methodist  Episcopal 

Chxirch 

J.  Warren  Smith, 

Director,  U.  S.  Weather  Bureau 

George  F.  Smythe, 
Kenyon  Collie 

George  Stibitz, 
Central  Seminary 

N.  W.  Stroup. 

District  Supt.,  Methodist  Episcopal 

Chiu-ch 

Omer  S.  Thomas. 

Secretary  of  Miami  Christian  Conference 

Samuel  Tyler, 

Chairman.  Sodal  Service  Commlsrion, 
Diocese  of  Southern  Ohio 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church 

Selby  H.  Vance, 
Lane  Seminary 

Paul  L.  Vogt, 

Professor  of  Sociology.  Miami  Unlverrity 

Ralph  J.  White, 

Missionary  Superintendent  of  Bast  Ohio 

Synod  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church 

G.  P.  Williams, 
Superintendent  of  Missions 
American  Sunday  School  Union 

Warren  H.  Wilson,  ^^^     ^ 

Supt.,  Presbyterian  Department  of  Church 
and  Country  Life 


Lr_ , ^ . HH^  r. 


Becline  in  0W 


President  W.  O.  Thompson 

Ohio  State  University,  Columbus,  Ohio 

Chairman    . 

Mr.  B.  R.  Ryall 

State  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  Columbus,  Ohio 

Secretary 

Warren  H.  Wilson,  Director 

Ralph  A.  Felton,  Field  Director 

Hermann  N.  Morse,  Historian 


PRESBYTERIAN  DEPARTMENT  OF  CHURCH  AND 
COUNTRY  LIFE 

156  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City 


MAP  OF  OHIO.     THE  COUNTIES   SURVEYED  ARE  INDICATED  BY  A  STAR. 


C|)urcl)  (§ro\uti)  anti  Becline  in  ©I)io 

This  report  embodies  some  of  the  results  of  the  Ohio  Rural  Life 
Survey,  the  work  of  which  was  carried  on  during  the  summer  of  1912 
in  twenty-one  (21)  counties  of  that  State.  This  study  included  in  its 
scope  all  social  forces  and  social  institutions.  But  one  specific  aspect 
of  this  general  inquiry  is  presented  here,  namely — the  question  of 
church  efficiency,  or,  rather  of  the  ability  and  equipment  of  the  rural 
church  to  render  efficient  service. 

The  best  measure  of  church  efficiency  in  these  districts  where  agricul- 
ture and,  consequently,  rural  society  are  relatively  matured  is  the 
attitude  of  society  towards  the  church  as  an  institution.  This  attitude 
is  most  clearly  indicated  by  the  support  which  society  gives  the  church. 
In  any  reasonably  stable  population  the  church  which  is  rendering  an 
efficient  and  indispensable  service  will,  in  the  average  instance,  be 
maintained  and  adequately  supported.  We  shall,  therefore,  consider 
primarily  the  question  of  church  growth. 

There  is  an  easy  assumption  among  many  whose  knowledge  is  more 
general  than  precise,  that  the  church  is  everywhere  doing  well.  Those 
who  are  genuinely  concerned  for  its  welfare  often  feel  that  it  is  their 
duty  to  contend  that  the  church  is  successful.  The  purpose  of  this 
report,  however,  is  analysis  and  not  argument.  It  presents  the  results 
of  a  critical  and  scientific  investigation  of  the  religious  conditions  of 
rural  Ohio  which  was  made,  not  for  the  support  of  any  particular 
proposition,  but  simply  to  ascertain  the  exact  facts.  The  investigation 
was  made  and  the  results  are  here  presented  in  a  spirit  of  entire  sym- 
pathy and  for  the  sole  purpose  of  pointing  out  the  way  of  betterment. 
The  criticism  is  meant  to  be  essentially  constructive.  The  discussion  is 
of  average  conditions.  There  are  many  specific  instances  which  will 
contradict  the  principles  here  laid  down.  Such  specific  instances 
strengthen  rather  than  invalidate  our  conclusions. 

The  territory  covered  by  this  report  includes  nineteen  of  the  twenty- 
one  counties  surveyed.  All  of  the  counties  starred  on  the  map  of  Ohio 
(see  frontispiece),  except  Montgomery  and  Preble  counties,  are  con- 
sidered.    Preble  County  was  omitted,  because  only  a  part  of  it  was 


surveyed,  and  Montgomery  County,  because  the  work  there  was  done 
on  a  slightly  different  basis  and  the  results  could  not  be  unified  with  the 
results  for  the  remaining  nineteen  counties.  The  counties  under  con- 
sideration, then,  are  Ashtabula  and  Geauga,  in  the  Western  Reserve; 
Allen,  Hancock  and  Defiance,  in  the  fertile  Maumee  Valley  section; 
Butler  and  Darke,  in  the  Miami  Valley ;  Adams,  Lawrence,  Washington 
and  Athens,  on  the  Ohio  River,  and  Vinton,  Guernsey,  Muskingum, 
Licking,  Harrison,  Holmes,  Wayne  and  Columbiana,  in  the  East  Cen- 
tral part  of  the  State.  All  parts  of  these  counties  are  included,  with 
the  exception  of  towns  having  a  population  of  more  than  2,500.  We 
have  here  represented  practically  every  type  of  agricultural  condition  to 
be  found  within  the  State.  There  are  counties  containing  some  of  the 
richest  and  most  highly  priced  farming  land  in  the  State,  and  others 
containing  some  of  the  cheapest  and  poorest  land;  there  are  level 
counties  and  hilly  counties ;  there  are  counties  which  show  the  influence 
of  neighboring  large  cities  and  counties  which  are  as  strictly  rural  as 
any  in  the  State.  In  all,  this  territory  contains  10,602  square  miles,  a 
little  more  than  one-fourth  of  the  total  land  area  of  the  State.  Any 
conclusions  established  for  these  nineteen  counties  will  be  representa- 
tive of  the  conditions  throughout  the  State  as  a  whole. 

Since  farm  life  and  village  life  show  such  marked  differences  in 
their  economic  and  social  conditions,  a  point  which  requires  no  argu- 
ment, they  show  different  tendencies  in  their  religious  conditions.  The 
relation  between  the  village  and  the  surrounding  country,  and  conse- 
quently between  village  institutions  and  country  people,  is  by  no  means 
uniform  throughout  the  State.  This  relation  is,  in  some  instances,  much 
closer  than  in  others,  so  that  whereas  one  village  or  one  village  church 
may  be  essentially  a  rural  institution,  another  may  be  controlled  by 
influences  quite  alien  to  rural  life.  We  have,  therefore,  divided  the 
churches  on  a  three-fold  basis  to  bring  out  the  contrasts  involved. 

Certain  terms  will  be  used  throughout  the  discussion.  All  churches 
which  are  located  in  towns  or  villages  and  which  minister  primarily  to 
a  town  or  village  population,  which  have,  that  is  to  say,  from  25%  to 
100%  of  their  members  living  within  corporation  limits,  we  have 
designated  "town"  churches.  All  churches  located  in  towns  or  villages 
which  minister  largely  to  a  farming  population,  which  have  from  25% 
to  100%  of  their  members  living  on  farms,  we  have  designated  "town- 
country"  churches.  The  term  "country"  we  have  reserved  for  those 
churches  which  are  located  in  the  open  country. 

Throughout  this  discussion  one  of  the  difficulties  will  be  to  distinguish 
between  cause  and  effect.     We  will  not  attempt  in  all  cases  to  do  so. 


Very  frequently  a  condition  which  is  a  result  of  church  decline  will 
itself  become  an  important  cause  of  further  decline.  It  is  hard  to 
know  where  to  draw  the  line. 


OUTLINE  OF  CONDITIONS 

In  these  nineteen  counties  there  are  in  all  1,515  churches.  Forty- 
six  per  cent,  of  these  are  located  in  towns  or  villages  and  the  remainder 
in  the  open  country.  A  comparatively  small  proportion  of  the  village 
churches  exist  for  the  sake  of  village  people  only.  The  majority  serve 
country  people  also.  Twelve  per  cent,  of  the  total  number  of  churches 
may  be  termed  "town,"  and  32%  "town-country."  By  far  the  larger 
number  of  these  churches,  therefore,  minister  wholly,  or  in  large 
measure,  to  the  farming  population. 

The  average  number  of  churches  per  county  is  about  eighty.  Some 
counties,  however,  are  much  more  plentifully  supplied  than  others. 
Certain  other  variations  in  this  respect  are  exceedingly  interesting  and 
significant.  In  general,  we  may  say  that  in  the  level  counties,  which 
in  this  case  are  the  richer  counties,  the  limits  of  the  average  rural 
community  are  more  widely  extended,  the  relation  to  the  town  is  closer 
and  the  country  districts  have  less  feeling  of  being  cut  off  from  village 


The  Passing  of  the  fanners  ChurcK 

1288  Churchea. 


(Churches 


4-1% 


^^Town-Countt^' 
Ch  UTches 


e:^% 


Counti;y 
Churches 


76^o 


are  not  Growing*. 


19   (bounties 


Ohio  Rural  Life  Survey 


life.  In  the  hilly  counties  the  country  communities  are  smaller  in 
extent  and  apparently  much  more  conscious  of  themselves.  Their 
relation  to  the  town,  particularly  in  the  outlying  districts,  is  relatively 
slight.  The  result  is  that  in  these  hilly  counties  there  are,  on  an  average, 
many  more  country  churches  than  in  the  level  counties.  For  example : 
Washington  County  has  74  country  churches ;  Vinton  has  51 ;  Athens, 
63 ;  Lawrence,  62 ;  Licking,  57 ;  while  Holmes  has  but  30 ;  Butler,  10 ; 
Darke,  36 ;  Defiance,  27,  and  Ashtabula,  a  very  large  county,  48.  This 
places  the  poorer  counties  at  an  initial  disadvantage.  While  less  able 
to  support  churches,  they  have  more  to  support. 

Of  all  these  1,515  churches  at  the  present  time  slightly  less  than  one- 
third  are  growing.  The  remaining  two-thirds  have  either  ceased  to 
grow  or  are  dying.  This,  at  the  outset,  would  seem  to  raise  a  serious 
question  of  church  efficiency,  especially  when  we  must  also  remember 
a  somewhat  long  list  of  churches  which  in  time  past  have  flourished, 
but  which  have  now  been  abandoned.  These  churches  average  about 
ten  to  the  county,  there  being,  we  estimate,  something  like  800  in  the 
entire  State.  These  are  churches  whose  doors  and  windows  have 
been  nailed  shut  and  which  will  never  again  be  used  for  religious  pur- 
poses. A  few  of  them  have  been  taken  over  for  various  other  purposes ; 
homes,  tool  sheds  or  barns.  Most  of  them,  however,  still  stand  unused, 
crumbling  monuments  to  the  wasteful  individualism  of  the  past.  These 
general  statements,  though  in  themselves  strongly  indicative  of  church 
decline,  tell  but  a  small  part  of  the  story. 

The  decline  of  the  farmer's  church  is  the  most  striking  single  fact 
to  be  recorded.  Those  churches  upon  which  the  farming  population 
is  dependent  show  the  most  rapid  changes  and  the  most  marked  signs 
of  decadence.  Of  the  churches  which  we  have  designated  "town" 
churches,  approximately  six  out  of  ten  are  growing.  This  is  a  fair 
proportion.  Various  causes  have  combined  in  the  past  to  put  into 
almost  every  town  more  churches  than  are  needed,  and  more  churches 
than  can  prosper  there.  A  weeding-out  process  has  been  going  on. 
The  result  will  be  to  the  ultimate  advantage  of  those  churches  which 
survive. 

ENTER  THE  FARMER! 

Of  the  churches  which  we  have  designated  "town-country"  churches, 
38%  are  growing,  38%  as  compared  with  59%  of  the  "town"  churches. 
Of  the  "country"  churches,  by  far  the  larger  number  of  all  the 
churches  considered,  not  quite  one-fourth  are  growing.  The  study  of 
county  after  county  compels  the  conclusion  that  when  other  things 


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are  equal,  the  larger  the  proportion  of  farmers  in  the  membership  of  a 
church,  the  smaller  chance  does  that  church  have  to  maintain  itself 
with  its  strength  unimpaired.  The  farmer  is  to-day  our  most  difficult 
church  problem.  Moving  his  church  to  town  does  not  solve  the 
problem  as  far  as  he  is  concerned,  and  puts  an  added  strain  upon  the 
townsfolk,  for  here  it  seems  the  townsfolk  are  carrying  the  farmers 
and  doing  it  none  too  well. 

Probably  many  explanations  of  this  condition  might  be  advanced. 
Doubtless  the  least  correct  of  them  would  be  that  the  farmer  is  not  a 
religious  man.  He  is  naturally  religious  and  has  shown  himself  to  be  a 
faithful  supporter  of  the  church,  according  to  his  light  and  his  means. 
In  certain  sections  where  the  churches  show  the  greatest  signs  of 
distress,  it  is  the  testimony  of  those  who  know,  that  the  people  are 
genuinely  religious  and  genuinely  concerned  for  the  affairs  of  religion. 
Yet  the  churches  have  suffered.  In  only  one  county  in  the  State  can 
it  be  said  that  the  churches,  over  any  large  area,  have  suffered  primarily 
because  of  the  indifference  of  the  people. 

Many  factors  must  be  considered  in  determining  the  cause  of  this. 
The  church,  as  an  organization,  is  highly  sensitive  to  all  changes  which 
affect  the  society  supporting  it.  Various  changes  in  the  conditions  of 
country  life  during  the  last  few  decades  have  seriously  conditioned  the 
problem  of  the  church.  The  most  obvious  of  these  changes  has  been 
the  shift  in  population.  In  practically  every  county  in  the  State,  even 
where  the  total  population  has  increased,  the  population  of  the  farms 
and  of  the  small  villages  has  decreased.  This  is  true  of  the  rich,  fertile 
counties,  and  is  even  more  true  of  the  poorer  counties.  For  example : 
In  Butler,  Preble,  Darke  and  Montgomery  counties  the  population 
of  the  large  cities  more  than  doubled  between  1880  to  1910.  The 
population  of  the  towns  showed  a  smaller,  but  still  substantial,  increase. 
The  rural  districts,  however,  showed  a  net  loss.  Vinton  County,  on 
the  other  hand,  lost  more  than  a  third  of  its  population  during  the 
same  thirty  years.  We  need  not  here  enter  into  any  discussion  of  the 
causes  of  this  decrease.  Obviously,  however,  it  makes  a  problem  for 
the  country  church,  in  which  the  town  churches  do  not  share.  It  is 
difficult  to  maintain  a  church  in  a  decreasing  population. 

Certain  pronounced  changes  in  agricultural  conditions  have  also 
had  marked  effects.  In  this  State  throughout  the  better  farming 
sections  tenantry  on  the  farms  has  increased  rapidly.  The  renter 
follows  the  good  land.  Through  the  counties  in  the  Miami  Valley 
from  40%  to  50%  of  the  farms  are  operated  by  tenants,  and  in  all 
other  sections  of  the  State  where   farming  is  relatively  prosperous 


Country  Churches 

and    the 

Tenant  Farmer 

Farm  Operators  Ghurch  Members 


-1-1%     '^nants       22% 

Farm  Owner  JHHFarm  Tenant 

}\  Church  for  the  Farm  Owner, 
ora  Church  for  all  who  farm. 

Butler  County 
Ohio  Rural  Life  Survey. 

tenant  farmers  are  now  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  population 
of  the  rural  districts.  It  is  no  reflection  upon  the  tenant  farmer  to 
say  that  the  church  has  not  yet  learned  how  to  reach  him.  The  pro- 
portion of  tenants  to  owners  in  the  church  membership  is  seldom  as 
high  as  the  proportion  in  the  total  farming  population.  Butler  County 
is  an  instance  of  this.  Here  41%  of  the  operating  farmers  on  the  land 
are  tenants,  but  only  22%  of  the  operating  farmers  on  the  church  roll 
are  tenants.  A  similar  condition  prevails  throughout  the  State.  The 
church  has  a  slighter  hold  upon  the  renter,  and  it  makes  slower  progress 
with  him  than  with  the  land  holder.  One  reason  for  this  appears  when 
we  study  the  question  of  the  stability  of  the  farming  population.  A 
house-to-house    canvass    of   three   townships    in    Butler   and    Preble 


counties  showed  that  while  the  average  term  of  occupancy  for  any 
given  farm  is  for  the  farm  owner  approximately  15  years,  for  the  tenant 
farmer  it  is  but  4.5  years.  There  are  sections,  of  course,  in  which  the 
tenant  farmer  is  a  relatively  permanent  resident.  In  general  he  belongs 
to  the  shifting  element  in  the  population,  and  for  that  reason  he  is  not 
a  real  part  of  any  given  community  and  is  less  inclined  to  support  its 
institutions.  To  have  an  ever-increasing  proportion  of  the  population 
members  of  a  class  upon  whom  the  church  has  as  yet  no  hold,  means 
that  the  influence  of  the  church  must  be  exerted  within  ever  narrow- 
ing limits. 

The  question  of  farm  income  is  also  of  importance  here.  Careful 
studies  were  made  of  the  income  of  farmers  in  certain  representative 
sections  of  the  State.  These  studies  showed  that  there  is  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  farming  population  without  an  adequate  income.  After 
paying  out  necessary  living  expenses  they  have  nothing  left  for  the 
support  of  social  institutions.  An  institution  like  the  church  must  be 
supported  out  of  the  community's  profits.  Where  any  considerable 
proportion  of  the  population  have  no  profits,  or  where  the  profits  are 
diminishing,  its  position  will  become  continuously  a  more  perilous  one. 
Doubtless  these  outward  conditions  have  been  among  the  causes  which 
have  occasioned  the  decline  of  the  farmer's  church. 

Many  churches,  however,  have  shown  that  it  is  not  necessary  for  a 
church  to  fail,  even  in  the  face  of  such  conditions  as  these.      These 

stability  of 
Farming  Populatioa 

-496  Farm  Operators. 

%e  average  term  of  occupancy 


for  tenants  is  4-. 5 years 

for  owners  is  14.9years. 


One  Reason  why  the  Church  has 
no  hold  on  the  "^nant  farmer. 

Butler  (5<  Preble  Gounties-    Ohio  Rural  Life  Survey 

10 


conditions  make  the  problem  of  maintenance  and  survival  more  acute. 
The  church  to  survive  must  put  forth  special  effort.  The  church  will 
thus  survive  through  the  methods  of  church  work  and  administration. 
There  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  the  church,  if  properly  administered, 
should  not  keep  its  people  in  the  country,  make  their  life  there  more 
pleasant  and  more  profitable  and  reach  and  hold  the  tenant  farmer  when 
he  comes  into  its  neighborhood.  The  methods  of  church  work  which 
now  have  vogue  in  the  country  are  not  adequate  to  the  needs  of  the 
field.      In  some  respects  these  methods  have  been  carried  over  from  a 


Getting  an  Income  ftom  theFarm. 

Sfwivui^  t/ie  disMhlio/i  oflnmnc  a//io//^  a  rep- 
resenMti^^e  ^roup  of  fame/'s:-/ici p/v0aJfore  a/l 
famt  md  /wuse/w/d  expcuscsfor  an  ammjc  peaj\ 

One-Jbarf/L  ai/-eracfe{/     ^900 


One-/ourl/i    ai^erag^ccC     '^300 


One-Jbart/t  ai^era^cd     ^100. 


One-J^ourt/v  sS^Ao^ed  a  Atei  loss. 

U/i^j/'e/il^  c&s/n6uled  prospc/'i/^ 
mea.ns  a.  Class-  CAurc/t  or  a. 
yK^cssioAv    G'Aurc/i^. 


Wayne  Co.         O/iio /lura/^ifc  Sa/i^ejf. 

11 


day  when  conditions  were  quite  different.  In  other  respects  there  has 
been  an  attempt  to  transplant  the  methods  of  the  town  church  to  the 
country.  The  attempt  to  meet  rural  problems  with  town  methods  and 
modern  problems  with  pioneer  methods  has  been  one  of  the  causes 
compelling  the  country  churches  to  face  the  bare  problem  of  survival. 
Most  country  churches  devote  all  their  available  energy  to  the  mere 
task  of  keeping  themselves  alive  and  none  is  left  for  the  consideration 
of  the  problem  of  an  increased  efficiency. 

METHODS  OF  CHURCH  ADMINISTRATION  AND  WORK 

From  the  point  of  view  of  business  efficiency  the  church  in  the 
country  lacks  adequate  supervision  and  direction.  There  are  few 
kinds  of  businesses  which  will  run  themselves  without  trained  personal 
supervision,  and  the  church  is  not  one  of  these.  The  church  is  an 
enterprise  which  requires  constant  care.  The  minister  is  the  man  in 
whom  the  responsibility  for  this  care  is  vested.  The  efficiency  of  the 
church  will  depend  largely  upon  whether  his  ability  and  his  oppor- 
tunity are  equal  to  his  task. 

The  first  charge  against  country  churches  is  the  charge  of  ministerial 
vivisection.  It  consists  essentially  in  dividing  up  a  minister  between 
two  or  more  different  charges  and  compelling  him  to  attempt  to  do  in 
several  different  places  work  which  requires  his  constant  attention  in 
each  place.  This  is  a  crime  not  only  against  the  minister,  but  against 
the  church  itself. 

The  town  churches  do  not  offdnd  seriously  in  this  regard.  37%  of 
these  churches  have  undivided  ministers,  while  another  32%  have  one- 
half  a  minister  each.  This  leaves  less  than  one-third  of  the  churches 
forced  to  content  themselves  with  one-third  of  a  minister  or  less.  The 
"town-country"  churches  are  not  quite  so  favorably  situated  but  they 
still  remain  reasonably  well  within  the  bounds  of  propriety.  18% 
have  undivided  ministers  and  34%  have  each  one-half  a  minister  and 
23%  each  one-third.  It  is  the  "country"  churches  which  are  the 
serious  offenders.  Just  6%  of  all  the  country  churches  have  undivided 
ministers  and  only  26%  have  as  large  a  part  of  the  minister  as  one-half. 
23%  have  only  one-third  of  a  minister,  27%  have  only  one-fourth, 
14%  have  only  one-fifth,  5%  have  only  one-sixth,  while  one  poor 
minister  was  found  who  was  manfully  striving  to  serve  the  needs  of 
seven  different  churches  scattered  all  over  a  county.  In  123  consecu- 
tive days  he  had  preached  119  times,  in  a  vain  effort  to  fill  a  place 
seven  times  too  large  for  one  man. 

12 


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13 


Certain  denominations  which  have  as  ministers  of  their  churches 
men  who  are  regularly  members  of  their  communities  as  farmers, 
blacksmiths,  etc.,  provide  a  fair  proportion  of  their  country  churches 
with  undivided  ministers.  Those  denominations,  however,  which  have 
a  professional  ministry,  have  made  a  settled  policy  of  combining  the 
country  churches  on  circuits  of  from  two  churches  up.  There  still 
remains  in  some  sections  an  outworn  notion  that  it  does  not  require 
a  whole  minister  to  direct  a  country  church,  that  the  work  of  a  coun- 
try church  is  easier  than  the  work  of  a  town  or  city  church.  This 
notion  is  gradually  being  shocked  out  of  us  and  we  are  discovering 
how  hard  it  is  to  succeed,  and  how  easy  it  is  to  fail  in  the  country  field. 

Columbiana  County,  with  nine  country  churches  having  ministers  on 
full  time,  has  more  than  twice  as  many  churches  in  this  condition  as 
any  other  county  surveyed.  There  are  seven  counties  without  a  single 
professional  minister  serving  a  country  church  on  full  time  and  seven 
others  which  have  but  one  or  two.  In  Vinton  County  all  but  four 
country  churches  have  less  than  a  third  of  a  minister  each,  and  in  some 
of  the  river  counties  conditions  are  almost  as  bad. 

A  whole  minister  has  a  big  enough  task  to  keep  a  church  alive,  par- 
ticularly in  the  country,  as  the  records  well  show ;  a  fraction  of  a  mm- 
ister  has  an  infinitely  more  difficult  task.  The  connection  of  the 
churches  on  a  circuit  is  an  important  factor.  Where  the  churches 
are  so  located  that  their  respective  parishes  are  practically  contiguous, 
making  one  large  parish  with  several  preaching  points,  this  system  does 
not  have  such  ill  results.  Where  the  churches  are  so  located  that 
their  parishes  are  quite  distinct  and  a  considerable  amount  of  travel  is 
necessary  to  go  from  one  to  the  other,  the  situation  is  more  serious. 
In  either  event,  however,  the  effect  of  this  systematized  vivisection 
upon  church  growth  is  unmistakable.  Of  all  the  churches  with  a 
whole  minister  each,  60%  are  growing.  The  few  country  churches 
that  come  in  this  class  make  as  good  a  showing  as  the  town  churches. 
Six  times  out  of  ten  the  minister  who  can  give  his  entire  attention  to 
one  church  succeeds  in  making  it  prosper.  Probably  this  is  as  high 
a  per  cent,  of  efficiency  as  any  profession  can  show.  Of  the  half  a 
minister  churches  only  39%  are  growing.  Of  the  third  of  a  minister 
churches  only  35%  are  growing,  while  of  those  churches  which  have 
one-fourth  of  a  minister  or  less  26%  are  growing.  Some  churches 
have  greater  inherent  strength  than  others.  Some  are  more  fortunate 
in  the  ministrations  accorded  them.  These  are  the  exceptions  that 
prove  the  rule  that  it  is  bad  business  in  the  average  instance  to  send 
a  part  of  a  man  to  do  a  whole  man's  work. 

14 


Of  course,  the  objection  is  at  once  urged  that  most  of  these  churches 
could  not  afford  ministers  at  all,  unless  they  were  combined  on  circuits ; 
a  question  into  which  we  cannot  go  more  fully  at  this  point.  Occa- 
sionally we  are  told,  apropos  of  this  acknowledged  difficulty,  that  the 
country  minister  ought  to  follow  the  example  of  the  Apostle  Paul  and 
learn  a  trade,  that  he  might  not  be  a  burden  to  his  congregation.  But 
to  divide  a  minister  up  between  two  professions  seems  to  be  a  worse 
policy  than  to  divide  him  up  between  two  churches.  A  sufficient 
number  of  instances  of  this  were  found  to  show  the  tendencies.  Among 
certain  sects,  where  the  social  bond  is  a  common  religion  and  where 
there  is  more  than  the  ordinary  amount  of  solidarity  and  class  con- 
sciousness, as  with  the  Amish  and  Mennonites,  this  policy  of  self- 
supporting  ministers  proves  very  satisfactory.  In  most  other  in- 
stances the  attempt  to  make  the  minister  into  a  tradesman  spells  failure. 

There  is  another  angle  to  this  question  which  shows  quite  as  clearly 
the  relation  of  the  minister  to  the  problem  of  church  growth.  It  is 
obvious  that  when  a  minister  is,  for  example,  divided  up  amongst  four 
churches,  the  one  of  these  churches  near  which  he  elects  to  live  has 
a  resident  pastor.  The  other  three  have  each  a  non-resident  minister. 
In  the  event  of  those  circuits  mentioned  above,  where  the  field  is  prac- 
tically a  contiguous  one,  this  is  not  a  very  serious  distinction.  On  the 
majority  of  circuits,  however,  the  difference  between  the  resident  pas- 
tor and  the  non-resident  minister  is  very  marked,  and  very  important. 
Living  near  his  job  is  by  no  means  unessential  for  the  minister.  It 
assures  an  opportunity  to  gain  acquaintance  with  his  problem  and  such 
intimate  acquaintance  is  an  asset  in  any  line  of  work.  The  man  who 
works  a  farm  by  not  going  near  it,  save  at  infrequent  intervals,  is  not 
likely  to  realize  very  heavily  upon  it.  Absentee  landlordism  is  recog- 
nized as  one  of  the  prolific  sources  of  agricultural  decline.  A  church 
is  no  easier  to  work  than  a  farm.  It  does  not  respond  any  more  readily 
to  absent  treatment.  The  "two  hour  a  month"  minister  cannot  hope 
for  an  acquaintance  with  his  people  which  will  permit  him  to  address 
himself  intelligently  to  their  peculiar  local  problems,  and  his  ignorance 
regarding  these  problems  will  necessarily  hamper  him  in  his  work. 

Ministers  seem  to  prefer  the  towns  to  the  country.  Most  country 
ministers  have  also  one  town  or  village  charge  and  elect  to  live  in  the 
town.  Of  all  "town"  churches  69%  have  resident  pastors,  24%  have 
non-resident,  while  7%  are  without  ministers.  The  "town-country" 
churches  make  almost  as  good  a  showing,  56%  have  resident  pastors, 
42%  non-resident  ministers  and  6%  no  ministers.  It  is  in  the  country 
that  the  minister  is  noticeably  absent.  Here  where  there  are  most  of 
the  churches  there  are   fewest  of  the  ministers.      Only  13%  of  the 


15 


"country"  churches  have  resident  pastors,  73%  have  non-resident 
ministers,  while  14%  are  without  ministers.  As  a  matter  of  fact  these 
figures  make  the  situation  seem  better  than  it  actually  is.  One-third 
of  those  churches  with  a  resident  pastor  have  him  for  their  minister  on 
Sundays  only  and  during  the  week  for  their  blacksmith,  or  their  jew- 
eler, or  their  neighboring  farmer.  Another  one-third  have  their  min- 
ister only  part  of  the  time  since  he  also  serves  one  or  more  other 
churches.  Just  4%  of  all  ''country"  churches  have  resident  pastors 
who  serve  one  charge  each  on  full  time.  The  per  cent,  of  absentee 
landlords  was  never  known  to  be  so  high  as  this,  96%  of  the  country 
churches  ministered  to  at  long  range.  The  three  maps  on  pages 
18  and  19  show  the  relation  between  the  points  where  the  ministers 
preach  and  their  places  of  residence.  Two  of  the  three  counties  shown 
are  among  the  better  organized  counties. 

There  is  little  of  personal  work  about  these  country  churches.  In 
six  out  of  every  ten  townships  throughout  these  nineteen  counties  there 
is  no  minister  living  in  the  country  districts.  The  ministers  who 
preach  in  these  townships  live  in  the  towns.  Few  townships,  however 
many  churches  they  may  have,  have  more  than  one  or  two  professional 
ministers  living  in  the  country.  Strange  to  say  those  counties  which 
have  the  most  country  churches  have  the  fewest  ministers  living  with 
them.  Adams,  Lawrence,  Athens,  Washington  and  Vinton  counties 
have  303  country  churches  with  but  thirteen  ministers  living  in  the 
country.  These  same  counties  have  an  unusual  number  of  churches 
without  ministers;  61  in  all.  Washington  County  alone  has  twenty- 
three  country  chuches  without  ministers. 

What  is  obviously  lacking  in  these  churches  is  the  minister  who  be- 
longs to  the  country  rather  than  to  the  town,  who  lives  in  it,  who  speaks 
its  language,  who  understands  it  and  who  is  especially  trained  to  work 
in  it  according  to  its  exact  needs.  Long  distance  ministering  is  inade- 
quate ministering  and  in  the  long  run  unsuccessful  ministering.  Here 
again  the  effect  upon  church  growth  is  clear  and  cannot  be  mistaken. 
Of  all  the  churches  which  have  resident  pastors  51.3%  are  growing, 
and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  most  of  these  resident  pastors  have 
also  to  attend  one  or  more  churches  aside  from  the  ones  near  which 
they  live.  Of  those  churches  which  have  non-resident  ministers  26.3% 
afe  growing,  while  of  the  ministerless  churches  only  11%  are  grow- 
ing. The  margin  of  difference  here  is  too  great  to  be  accidental,  espe- 
cially when  this  condition  holds  through  town  and  country;  through 
good  farm  areas  and  bad.  The  conclusion  cannot  be  escaped  that  a 
few  ministers  who  live  in  the  country  where  they  preach  will  be  of 

16 


Ministering  to  the  Farmer 
at  Long  Range 


1436  Churches 


Town    Ghurehci 


"^lown  Couiitry  Ghurelics      Coii'ntryChurehcs 


I  I        wUh  resident  pastor 

WWMi         wilfv    nort- resilient   rrumsicr 
IIH^I         ^^^it}tout  minzste^r^ 

3  out  of  10  farms  have  absentee  Landlords, 
9   ..     .10  churches  have  absentee  Mirristers 

or  none  at  all 

Is  a  church  easier  to  work  than  a  farm? 

19  Counties  Ohio  Rural   Life  Survey 

Presbyterian   Dept  o^  CtiureK  and  Country  Life 

vastly  more  service  to  it  than  a  whole  host  who  live  elsewhere  and 
merely  preach  there. 

One  obvious  result  of  this  system  of  farming  out  churches  on  circuits 
and  giving  to  each  church  a  small  piece  of  a  minister,  and  that,  too, 
usually  an  absentee  minister,  is  the  great  difficulty  of  supplying  these 
churches  with  the  ordinary  pastoral  ministrations.  The  public  preach- 
ing service  is  an  instance  of  this.  A  minister  who  has  four  or  five 
churches  cannot  be  expected  to  preach  in  each  of  them  on  every  Sunday. 
It  will  be  accepted  without  argument  that  the  life  of  a  church  is  vitally 

17 


Where  the  Ministers  Live 
and  Where  Ifiey  Preach. 

Vinton  So.,  Ohio. 


e/utrch. 

Wi^wut  ePastor 

6oivrL  or  yi/la^c  ( '■Jij/a/c^  ■ />ro/>  f 

Ohio  Rural  LifeSiirvcY- 


related  to  the  frequency  of  its  public  preaching  services.  Such  public 
services  are  an  important  part  of  the  work  of  any  church.  A  large 
part  of  the  "town"  and  "town-country"  churches  have  service  every 
Sunday;  65%  in  one  instance,  and  48%  in  the  other.  25%  of  the  re- 
maining number  of  "town"  churches  and  37%  of  the  "town-country" 
churches  have  two  services  a  month.  A  very  small  proportion  are 
without  any  regular  service.  In  the  country  churches,  however,  only 
extreme.  For  example:  in  Adams,  Lawrence,  Athens,  Washington 
and  Vinton  counties  there  are  but  twelve  country  churches  which  have 
a  public  service  every  Sunday  and  there  are  ninety-two  which  have 
services  not  oftener  than  once  a  month. 

The  frequency  and  regularity  of  service  while  perhaps  not  in  itself 
so  evident  a  cause  of  church  growth,  is  nevertheless  a  rather  clear  index 
of  it.  Of  all  churches  which  have  four  services  per  month  47%  are 
growing.  Of  those  which  have  but  two  services  27%  are  growing. 
Of  the  one  service  a  month  churches  21%  are  growing,  while  of  all 
those  which  have  no  regular  service  less  than  4%  are  growing.  There 
21%  have  services  every  Sunday,  more  than  one-half  have  but  two 

18 


Where  the  Ministers  Live 
and  where  they  preach. 


Harrison  Co.  Ohio. 


O  j£>u->n    or-     iLLla^e 

•  Chu^r-ch. 

&         C/iJ^f~c/i.     Luilhou/:     /austor' 

•  yrLiru.ster-'i     *-/Ci;s  i^  rice 

Co/tnect^    AtLriMster-^    residence   with  C/uxrck  ^i£  server 

fyinu^r-e^     reureserLt    ijapoUxztu?/i-     (lifio) 


Where  the  Ministers  Live  k  Where  lliey  Preach. 

Defiance  Co  —Ohio. 


@  eA^rcA     u.cth^^      9l^.U.. 

•         MtrLL^ti'r':,   '^j^^iderLce 

Connects  yyluii^ter 3  "Jl^u^ni^e  wUkefuircAorCAurcfu^^  fui    5er^es 

M^L^  ctxilccde:  J^tayu-^-  he  mu^t  truue//vm'%J>JeiLCe  Lu  Church 

Churches  of  Hicksvi  lie  A  Defiance  not  included 


19 


services  monthly,  14%  have  but  one,  while  7%  have  no  regular  service. 
Of  course  the  situation  is  the  least  favorable,  as  regards  public  services, 
in  those  counties  which  have  carried  the  circuit  system  to  the  greatest 
is  more  of  effect  than  cause  here  and  yet  this  is  important,  for  the 
opportunity  to  publicly  assemble  the  people  together  is  an  opportunity 
whose  importance  to  the  church  can  hardly  be  over-estimated. 

Another  instance  of  the  difficulty  of  supplying  circuit  churches  with 
pastoral  ministrations  comes  to  light  when  dealing  with  the  problem 
of.  how  to  induce  people  who  are  not  church  members  to  attach  them- 
selves to  the  church.  Obviously  the  church  which  is  not  winning  for 
itself  new  members  is  digging  its  own  grave.  This  is  particularly  true 
in  neighborhoods  where  there  is  very  much  shifting  of  the  population. 
The  lack  of  ministers  residing  in  the  country  has  caused  a  general  reli- 
ance upon  one  single  method  of  recruiting  the  church  roll.  This  is 
the  annual  revival.  The  town  and  village  churches  use  the  revival  as 
extensively  as  the  country  churches,  but  our  present  concern  is  with 
its  efficiency  for  the  country  church.  The  figures  are  available  for  but 
sixteen  of  the  nineteen  counties  which  we  have  been  considering.  645 
country  churches  in  these  sixteen  counties  during  the  last  church  year 
added  to  their  rolls  3,672  names.  454  of  these  churches  sometime  dur- 
ing the  year  held  protracted  revival  services.  These  454  churches  had 
altogether  3,059  of  the  entire  3,672  additions.  Of  this  number  3,011 
were  converts  at  revival  services.  These  churches  added  but  48  to 
their  rolls  by  other  means.  The  average  additions  per  church  for 
these  churches  were  6.7.  There  were  191  churches  in  the  country 
which  did  not  have  protracted  meetings.  127  of  these  had  no  additions 
on  confession.  The  whole  number  of  churches  had  altogether  613  addi- 
tions, an  average  of  3.2  per  church.  Most  of  these,  however,  came  to 
a  small  number  of  churches,  exceptionally  well  equipped.  The  few 
churches  which  had  resident  pastors  doing  a  great  amount  of  pastoral 
work  showed  a  much  larger  average  number  of  additions  than  the 
churches  which  depended  upon  the  revival  service. 

This  condition  prevails  generally  throughout  the  State,  but  is  seen  at 
its  extreme  in  those  sections  where  the  circuit  system  is  carried  to  the 
extreme.  It  may  also  be  said  that  in  these  counties  the  type  of  re- 
ligious experience  most  common  contains  a  greater  element  of  emo- 
tionalism than  is  to  be  found  in  other  sections.  This  emotionalism, 
of  course,  lends  itself  very  readily  to  the  revival  system.  As  a  result 
in  many  churches  in  these  counties  it  is  necessary  in  ascertaining  the 
size  of  the  membership  to  go  over  the  roll  carefully  and  discover  how 
many  times  the  same  name  is  found  thereon,  placed  there  periodically 
after  the  annual  gathering  in. 


We  are  not  here  contending  for  or  against  the  revival  as  a  method 
of  church  work.  We  simply  desire  to  make  certain  facts  clear.  First, 
it  is  seen  that  the  country  churches,  as  a  rule,  are  relying  almost  entirely 
upon  the  revival  to  increase  their  membership.  Second,  for  more  than 
three-fourths  of  the  churches  this  reliance  is  proving  quite  inadequate, 
since  it  will  be  recalled  that  just  24%  of  the  "country"  churches  are 
growing.  The  "town"  and  "town-country"  churches  show  better  re- 
sults. The  point  of  this  seems  very  clear.  The  revival  in  those  churches 
comes  to  supplement  the  work  of  a  resident  pastor.  We  are  comparing 
here  the  revival  as  a  supplement  to  the  pastor's  work,  with  the  revival 
as  a  substitute  for  the  pastor's  work.  As  a  supplement  it  is  pro- 
ducing good  results ;  as  a  substitute  it  is  failing  signally. 

SIZE  AND  EFFICIENCY 

The  size  of  the  membership  of  a  church  has  a  bearing  upon  its 
working  efficiency  too  direct  and  important  to  permit  us  to  neglect  it 
here.  There  has  been  a  great  tendency  in  the  country  to  multiply 
churches  and  denominations  far  beyond  the  number  needed.  This 
tendency  is  seen  in  the  towns  and  villages,  but  its  effects  are  not  so 
clearly  marked  there.  There  are  more  churches  in  the  country  in  pro- 
portion to  the  population  than  there  are  in  the  towns  and  villages,  and 
especially  there  are  more  small  and  weak  churches.  A  study  of  the 
chart,  "Variations  in  Size  of  Membership,"  will  make  clear  this  point. 
Of  the  "town"  churches  only  8.7%  have  less  than  25  members  each, 
while  59.1%  have  over  100  members  each.  The  "town-country" 
churches  average  a  little  smaller;  but  43.1%  have  over  100  members. 
83%  of  all  country  churches,  however,  have  less  than  100  members 
each,  while  21.2%  have  each  25  members  or  less. 

Here  we  see  in  its  clearest  form  the  effects  of  strong  denominational 
feeling  upon  church  work.  In  the  towns  the  multiplication  of  denom- 
inations while  often  highly  criminal  from  the  point  of  view  of  church 
efficiency,  is  not  so  easily  carried  to  an  extreme.  This,  of  course,  is 
for  the  very  obvious  reason  that  there  is  a  large  number  of  people 
within  an  easy  church-going  radius  upon  whom  these  churches  may 
draw.  In  the  country  the  people  are  more  scattered  and  multiplication 
of  churches  and  denominations  means  the  dividing  up  of  a  clientele 
with  very  definite  limits.  Many  churches  were  found  which  had  a  mere 
handful  of  members,  sometimes  but  two  or  three,  who  were  holding  on 
to  the  old  church  long  after  some  other  church  had  come  to  fill  the 
largest  place  in  the  religious  life  of  the  neighborhood,  a  policy  which 
has  very  serious  resuUs.    The  impact  of  a  small  church  upon  society  is 

21 


%e  relation  of  Public  Services 
to  Church  GrowtK. 

1217  Churches. 

Churches  with  preaching  service  on 


Z  Sundays 
per/nonih 


pej-mvnlh.  eSerycces 


47% 


27% 


J^re  Growing. 

JRrwiker  ^rodkmjbr  ihe.  tm-/wara-monl/L  '/mnister 


19  (Eou^ntics^ 


Ohio  Rural  Life  Survey. 


necessarily  slight.    There  is  a  momentum  to  large  numbers.    "He  that 
hath  to  him  shall  be  given." 

We  may  indicate  this  by  dividing  the  churches  up  into  six  groups 
according  to  the  size  of  their  membership,  and  giving  the  statistics  of 
growth  for  each.  These  groups  will  be  as  follows:  churches  with  a 
membership  of  25  or  less,  26  to  50,  51  to  100,  101  to  150,  151  to  200,  and 
201  and  over.  In  each  of  these  groups  there  are  included  from  100  to 
400  churches,  enough  to  show  clearly  the  tendencies.  The  percentages 
of  growing  churches,  within  each  of  these  groups  in  the  order  given,  are 
as  follows:  2.2%,  16.6%,  33.5%,  48.2%,  58.5%  and  79%.  The  regu- 
larity with  which  the  increase  of  efficiency  and  ability  to  survive  par- 
allels the  increase  in  membership  is  very  striking.  Obviously  the  great 
over-multiplication  of  small  churches  is  one  of  the  root  causes  of  the 


22 


failure  of  the  country  churches  to  meet  the  conditions  which  we  have 
previously  mentioned  as  affecting  church  efficiency.  They  are  unable 
to  provide  themselves  with  resident  pastors  who  shall  give  them  full 
service.  They  are  unable  to  hold  weekly  public  meetings.  They  are 
unable  adequately  to  equip  themselves  for  the  work  they  must  do. 

The  conclusion  is  unavoidable  that  the  small  church  is  a  dying  propo- 
sition. It  must  be  remembered  that  we  are  here  dealing  with  a  mature 
population.  These  are  not  frontier  conditions,  where  population  may 
be  expected  to  increase  rapidly  and  where  all  building  is  done  with  an 
eye  to  an  expanded  future.  In  these  neighborhoods  the  population  has 
already  begun  to  decrease.  The  small  church  here  in  those  districts 
which  are  already  adequately  churched  is  not  a  promising  missionary 
enterprise.  Not  until  a  church  has  at  least  100  members  does  it  have 
an  even  chance  to  survive. 

There  are  two  other  serious  results  of  this.  The  first  is  the  economic 
waste.  There  are  vastly  more  churches  in  the  country  districts  than 
are  needed  to  minister  to  all  the  people  who  live  there  and  very  few 
of  these  churches  are  equipped  to  bear  their  just  share  of  the  burden 
of  religious  work.  Nearly  every  county  has  townships  which  furnish 
examples  of  this  evil  at  its  maximum.  Here  we  have,  let  us  say,  a 
township  in  which  there  are  five  country  churches.  Two  of  them  have 
each  one-third  of  a  minister  and  the  remaining  three  have  each  a  fourth. 
These  ministers  live  from  five  to  twenty  miles  away  from  these  particu- 
lar churches.  Each  minister  travels  a  considerable  distance  to  reach 
the  one  of  these  churches  which  he  serves  once  or  twice  a  month.  He 
stays  perhaps  three  days  at  each  visit.  He  cannot  be  easily  reached  by 
his  people  at  other  times  when  he  is  specially  needed.  These  men  are 
working  under  very  serious  handicaps.  All  of  them  together  do  not 
give  to  this  particular  township  an  amount  of  time  equal  to  the  full 
time  of  one  resident  minister.  The  result  is  relative  inefficiency.  It 
would  not  cost  as  much  to  put  in  each  of  these  communities  one  strong 
church  with  a  resident  pastor  serving  it  on  full  time,  who  would  be 
able  to  do  far  more  than  the  whole  number  of  ministers  who  can  each 
spend  but  a  small  part  of  the  time  with  each  church.  A  fourth  of  each 
of  four  ministers  does  not  mean  a  whole  minister  in  working  efficiency, 
though  it  means  a  whole  salary.  Here  is  a  duplication  of  effort  which 
from  the  point  of  view  of  parish  economy  is  wasteful  in  the  extreme. 

This  wastefulness,  serious  as  it  is  when  the  churches  everywhere 
complain  of  their  poverty,  might  be  overlooked  if  we  could  leave  out 
of  sight  the  fact  that  as  a  result  of  this  system  we  have  inefficient 
churches.  But  we  cannot  neglect  the  fact  that  this  extravagant  system 
does   not   get   results.     It   can   be   shown   from   county   after   county 

23 


Ihe  Failure  of  ilbsentlreatment 


1135  Churches 


With  Resident 

F*£L&lOT~ 


51% 
are   gro-win^ 


26% 
are  ^rovv in^ 


11% 
are  ^rowin^ 


19  Counties. 


Ohio  Rural  Life  Survey. 


that  those  neighborhoods  in  which  there  are  a  large  number  of  small, 
poorly  equipped  churches  are  responding  the  least  readily  to  the  in- 
fluence of  those  churches.  The  religious  forces  are  in  those  cases  so 
divided  that  their  impact  upon  society  is  almost  negligible.  Communi- 
ties with  a  large  number  of  weak  churches  as  a  general  rule  show  a 
smaller  proportion  of  their  population  in  the  church  membership.  In 
the  average  Ohio  county  one  church  to  every  500  or  600  of  the  popu- 
lation gives  an  ample  number,  provided  that  those  churches  are  prop- 
erly equipped  and  maintained.  We  may  take  Ashtabula  County  as  an 
example.  Here  there  are  five  townships  which  have  one  church  to 
approximately  every  175  of  the  total  farming  population.  These  five 
townships  show  an  average  of  17%  of  their  population  in  the  church 
membership.  Six  townships  have  one  church  to  every  250  and  show 
21%  of  the  population  as  church  members.  Eight  townships  have  one 
church  to  every  350  and  show  24%  as  church  members.  Four  town- 
ships have  one  to  every  450  and  show  26%  members.  Then  there  are 
four  townships  which  have  not  churches  enough.  In  these  there  is  one 
church  to  from  700  to  1,300  of  the  population  and  but  11%  of  the  pop- 
ulation are  church  members.  These  figures  could  be  duplicated  for 
other  communities.  Over-churching  is  not  only  a  matter  of  having 
more  churches  than  are  needed,  but  of  having  more  than  can  be  so 
equipped  and  maintained  as  to  do  the  work  properly  and  efficiently. 
Geauga  and  Defiance  counties  are  the  only  counties  surveyed  which  do 
'  not  show  clearly  the  serious  effects  of  over-churching. 

24 


THE  RELATION  OF  GOOD  CHURCHES  AND 
GOOD  FARMS 

The  last  point  to  be  made  by  this  report,  in  some  respects  the  most 
important  point  of  all,  is  that  in  the  final  analysis  the  prosperity  of  the 
church  depends  upon  the  prosperity  of  the  community  in  which  it  is 
located.  In  all  the  State  there  was  hardly  found  a  strong,  flourishing 
church  in  a  poor  and  permanently  impoverished  community.  Strong 
churches  do  not  take  root  in  thin  soil,  and  in  those  counties  where  agri- 
culture has  suffered  most,  churches  also  have  suffered  most.  In  certain 
extreme  instances  there  are  whole  areas  through  which  the  churches 
have  almost  died  out.     That  is  to  say,  those  churches  which  require  a 

Variations  in  size  of  Membership. 

1-1^87  Churches. 


^o  of  chui  -dies  /ia.i-ai^  a  membersJuf  of 


*Town 
Churches 


Town  Cbuntry 
ehurches 


Country 
Churches 


28.7 


12.1 


83.27oOfall  Gountry  Churches 
have  membership  of  100  or  less. 


19  eounties- 


OX\\o  Rural  Life  Survey. 

25 


high  standard  of  living  have  died  out.      Throughout  the   State  the 
health  of  the  country  churches  varies  quite  uniformly  according  to  the 
degree  of  agricultural  prosperity.      The  two  charts,  "Where  Agricul- 
ture Prospers"  and  "Where  Agriculture  Suffers,"  illustrate  this  point 
clearly.      The  tendency  in  the  prosperous  communities  is  to  maintain 
fewer  churches,  but  to  equip  them  better,  and  consequently  in  those 
better  counties  churches  have  fared  better.     In  this  connection  we  may 
instance  the  disappearance    from   many    farming   districts    in    Adams 
County  of  the  churches  of  the  older  denominations  and  the  substitution 
of  churches  which  are  built  upon  a  low  standard  of  living;  the  extreme 
development  of  the  circuit  system  in  Lawrence  County;  the  large  num- 
ber of  country  churches  which  are  pastorless  in  Washington  County 
and  the  general  distress  of  most  of  the  country  churches  in  Vinton  and 
Licking  counties.     A  Vinton  County  pastor,  who  had  worked  there  as 
teacher  and  preacher  throughout  a  long  and  active  lifetime,  gave  an 
eloquent  utterance  of  the  proposition  that  good  churches  are  dependent 
upon  good  farming.     After  describing  the  vicissitudes  of  church  work 
in  the  farming  districts  of  that  county,  he  told  of  the  steady  decline  of 
agriculture  through  the  impoverishment  of  the  soil  and  the  rapid  de- 
crease of  population.     Recently  ten  miles  of  pike  had  been  built  in  the 
county,  the  first  good  road  ever  made  there.      This  pike  was  topped 
with  limestone.     In  the  summer  the  traffic  crushed  this  limestone  into 
a  fine  dust  and  the  wind  blew  it  out  over  the  barren  clay  by  the  side  of 
the  road.      Shortly  after,  the  road  was  lined  with  a  good  stand  of 
sweet  clover.     After  describing  the  effects  of  lime  upon  that  soil,  he 
summed  up  his  position  by  saying  that  in  the  future  he  would  preach 
both  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  gospel  of  limestone,  in  the  as- 
surance that  unless  the  farmers  accepted  his  gospel  of  limestone,  his 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  would  fail  of  its  full  effect  among  them.     When 
the  farm  suffers,  the  church  suffers  with  it.     When  farming  prospers, 
the  church  will  not  be  the  last  institution  to  share  in  that  prosperity. 

The  various  points  which  we  have  tried  to  establish  are  by  no  means 
mutually  exclusive;  they  are  all  inter-related.  Which  is  the  funda- 
mental cause  it  is  not  easy  to  say.  Clearly,  however,  the  gravest 
church  problem  of  these  counties  at  the  present  time  is  the  problem  of 
making  efficient  those  churches  upon  which  the  farming  population  de- 
pends. This  demands  some  fundamental  reconstruction  of  the  methods 
of  church  work  and  administration;  a  recognition  of  the  broad,  inclu- 
sive nature  of  the  problem  and  a  serious  and  scientific  effort  to  equip 
the  churches  to  adequately  cope  with  the  situation.  The  scientific 
farmer  has  come  into  all  these  counties  and  is  teaching  the  farmers  how 
they  can  make  two  grains  of  wheat  grow  where  but  one  grew  before. 

26 


Doubtless  to  his  efforts  must  be  added  the  effort  of  the  scientific  and 
conscientious  community  builder,  who  shall  labor  to  make  one  church 
prosper  where  six  languished  before,  and  to  this  end  shall  attempt  to 
unite  the  small,  inefficient,  struggling  churches  into  larger  units,  so  that 
they  may  provide  themselves  with  resident  pastors  who  shall  live  with 
them,  work  amongst  them,  study  their  needs  and  build  them  up  by  their 
continual  ministry.  And,  finally,  in  order  that  this  may  be  done,  these 
churches  must  dedicate  themselves  to  the  cause  of  better  agriculture, 
better  living  and  a  more  evenly  distributed  prosperity,  that  there  may 
be  in  the  country  an  income  which  will  provide  for  the  adequate  financ- 
ing of  the  church. 

SUMMARY  AND  RECOMMENDATIONS 

1.  It  is  plain  from  this  survey  that  the  religious  problem  of  Ohio  is 
the  church  which  serves  the  working  farmer.  The  farmers'  churches 
are  most  difficult  to  maintain.  They  are  also  the  most  numerous. 
From  them  come  the  American  members  for  city  churches,  for  the 
country  regions  of  Ohio  are  thoroughly  American.  In  these  churches, 
too,  individual  character  is  regenerated  and  is  trained  in  the  simplest 
as  well  as  the  most  lasting  traditions  of  religious  life.  So  that  the 
country  church,  resting  under  the  detriment  which  is  here  described,  is 
the  greatest  religious  concern  of  all  the  churches  in  Ohio.  That  three- 
fourths  of  the  farmers'  churches  have  ceased  to  grow  and  are  losing 
their  hold  upon  the  people  is  sufficient  reason  for  redirecting  the  reli- 
gious policies  of  the  churches  of  the  State  to  the  help  of  the  country 
church. 

2.  The  tenant  farmer,  or  "renter,"  constitutes  a  large  proportion  of 
the  people  on  the  farms  in  the  western  counties  of  the  State,  and  in 
all  the  State  he  is  a  great  factor  in  the  rural  population.  Above  all 
men  in  Ohio,  unless  it  be  the  newly  arrived  immigrant,  the  tenant 
farmer  is  of  concern  to  the  church.  His  lease  on  the  land  is  but  for 
one  year.  He  actually  does  move  with  great  frequency.  The  effect  of 
his  weak  hold  upon  the  land  is  reflected  in  his  state  of  mind.  He 
does  not  expect  to  remain  long  in  the  community.  He,  therefore,  does 
not  give  his  allegiance  to  the  church,  unless  he  be  sought.  Among 
these  tenant  farmers  the  need  of  evangelism,  of  an  annual,  thorough- 
going, heart  to  heart  preacher's  appeal,  is  very  great.  Because  they 
shift  so  often  it  is  obviously  necessary  for  the  church,  at  least  once  a 
year,  to  preach  a  gospel  of  decision  and  of  allegiance  to  the  Master 
and  to  the  Kingdom. 

This  work  should  be  followed  up  by  the  organization  of  a  Brother- 
hood or  Farmers'  Club  in  the  church.      Whatever  the  name  of  this 

27 


organization,  it  should  be  a  men's  society,  one  of  whose  purposes 
should  be  personal  work  in  soliciting  men  to  come  into  relations  to  the 
church  and  into  obedience  to  Christ.  The  minister  should  use  this 
society  as  an  organ  and  a  tool  whereby  his  men  shall  win  other  men 
to  the  Kingdom.  This  farmers'  club,  however,  should  have  other  and 
sincere  purposes.  It  should  frequently  hear  a  good  speaker  on  farm- 
ing. It  should  bring  into  the  community  the  experts  upon  such  topics 
as  Co-operative  Manufacture;  Rural  Credit  Associations;  Good  Roads; 
Consolidated  Schools  and  other  things  of  concern  to  the  farmer.  It 
should  be  a  cordial,  social  enterprise.  Its  meetings  should  not  scorn 
the  cheer  of  a  cup  of  coffee  and  a  sandwich.  On  the  other  hand,  its 
meetings  should  always  be  frankly  religious.  They  should  be  opened 
with  prayer  and  with  song.  They  should  not,  however,  be  prayer 
meetings  in  the  common  acceptance  of  the  term.  Their  main  purpose 
is  to  win  men  to  allegiance  to  the  Master  and  to  a  productive,  sober. 
Christian  life.  The  church  ought  to  help  the  tenant  to  become  an 
owner,  for  an  owner  makes  a  better  Christian  and  Protestant  than  a 
tenant.  The  moral  strain  upon  a  family  in  the  process  of  frequent 
removals  is  greater  than  that  upon  a  family  which  stays  in  the  com- 
munity. It  is  morally  and  religiously  better  for  a  family  to  own  farm 
land  than  not  to  own.  All  Protestant  interests  are  bound  up  with 
personal  ownership.  The  Protestant  church  is  endangered  in  a  terri- 
tory in  which  men  are  passing  in  large  numbers  from  farm  ownership 
to  farm  tenancy.  The  Protestant  church  will  be  built  up  when  men 
pass  from  tenancy  into  ownership. 

The  service  of  the  church  to  the  renter  must  be  much  the  same  as 
that  to  young  people,  especially  to  young  men.  It  must  be  evangel- 
istic, social,  expressing  in  many  ways  the  brotherhood  and  imparting 
by  many  means  the  diligence  of  Christian  character.  For  this  reason 
we  recommend,  especially,  the  organization  of  brotherhoods,  farmers' 
clubs,  men's  guilds  or  personal  work  guilds  in  the  country  churches 
where  renters  are  many. 

3.  It  is  obvious  from  this  story  that  preachers  have  kept  alive  the 
churches  in  Ohio  unto  this  time.  Whatever  has  been  done  is  plainly 
due  to  the  minister  who  serves  a  church,  though  it  be  by  only  one  ser- 
mon a  month.  But  the  rural  pastor  is  scarcely  to  be  found.  Only  six 
per  cent,  of  the  rural  churches  have  a  pastor's  whole  time.  Some 
method  must  be  found  by  Christian  churches  in  Ohio  for  placing 
pastors  in  the  country.  We  recommend  the  following :  Let  the  pastor 
be  located  and  a  parsonage  for  him  be  erected  alongside  the  consolidated 
school  in  the  country. 

28 


In  Six  (bounties 

Where 
Jl^ri culture  Suffers. 

378  Country  Churches. 

4-%  have  Resident  Pastoi^s, 
65%  haveNon-Resident  Ministers, 
IS'^o  are  without  Ministers, 
13%  are  entirely  abandoned, 

£l7o  are  Growing, 

19%  are  Standing  Still 

60%  are  Losings  Ground. 


<^ood  churches  are  depencfent  upon 
^oodyarmin^.  ffhere  £/ieJar/n  su/jfers, 
i/ie  e/iurch  suffers  m//iit. 

6  Counties-  Ohio  Rural  Life  Sixrvey. 

The  State  of  Ohio  will,  in  the  early  future,  consolidate  its  rural 
schools  in  a  very  extensive  way,  or  at  least  will  pass  legislation  such 
as  to  hasten  consolidation.  Already  Ohio  leads  other  States  in  consoli- 
dating its  schools.  Alongside  the  consolidated  school  will  grow  up  a 
small  village  or  hamlet,  frequently  far  away  from  the  railroad;  its 
residents  selected  by  those  influences  of  which  education  will  be  first. 
The  school-going  habit  will  build  up  the  village  around  the  consolidated 
school.     The  church  that  is  nearest  the  consolidated  school  will  reap 

39 


In  Six  (bounties. 

Where 
^^riculture  Prospers. 

262  Country  Churches 

19%  have  Resident  Pastors. 
59%  have  Non-Rcsident  Pastors. 
7%  are  without  Ministers. 
15%  are  definitely  Jlbandoned. 

34%  are  Growing. 
26%  are  Standing  Still 
40%  are  losing  Ground. 

Good  €!/iiirc/ies  are  idependeni  upon 
^ood yhr/run^.  Where  l/ie/ar/7i prospers^ 
i/ie  chu/vA  yrdl  share  in  ^hal prosper/^ 

G  Coiantie^3  Ohio  Rural  Life  Stxrvey. 

a  harvest  of  church-going  from  the  seed  sown  by  the  children  in  going 
to  school.  Moreover,  this  church  will  have  better  leaders,  more  in- 
telligent teachers  for  its  Sunday  school  and  the  benefit  of  the  noblest 
hopes  and  of  the  highest  ideals  of  the  community.  These  will  become 
its  assets  and  its  resources.  The  denomination  which  places  churches 
systematically  alongside  consohdated  schools  and  builds  parsonages  for 
the  homes  of  its  ministers  by  these  schools  will  grow  in  the  country. 

For  the  present  this  recommendation  must  be  made  to  whatever 
church  will  carry  it  out.     But  in  time  a  federation  of  churches  might 


30 


advise  the  different  communions  which  of  them  shall  have  the  duty  of 
invading  a  particular  consolidated  district.  It  is  improbable  that  the 
number  of  churches  so  centered  will  ever  be  too  many.  The  day  of 
over-churching  is  at  an  end. 

The  rural  pastor  is  the  greatest  need,  and  the  placing  of  pastors  in 
the  country  should  be  the  dominating  policy  of  religious  people  in  Ohio. 
The  pastor  can  educate  his  people  in  the  religious  life.  He  can  train 
the  children  to  go  to  church.  He  can  accustom  his  flock  to  the  regular 
processes  of  worship,  of  prayer  and  of  Christian  living.  He  can  train 
them  in  giving  to  the  great  interests  of  the  Kingdom.  So  clear  is  the 
message  of  this  Survey  as  to  the  power  of  pastors  to  build  churches  and 
to  maintain  them,  so  clearly  does  it  show  the  decline  of  the  church 
without  a  pastor  in  the  country,  that  there  is  no  escape  from  the  con- 
clusion that  in  Ohio  the  service  to  be  rendered  by  Dioceses,  Conferences 
and  Presbyteries  is  the  locating  of  pastors  with  the  people  and  the 
churches  in  the  country. 

4.  The  church  in  the  open  country  having  less  than  one  hundred 
members  should  be  inspected  carefully  by  mission  boards  and  Home 
Mission  committees.  This  church  is  probably  dying.  The  chances  are 
against  its  survival.  Rural  population  has  ceased  to  grow  in  Ohio. 
Without  a  pastor  the  church  of  less  than  one  hundred  members  is 
doomed. 

When  such  a  church,  especially  when  a  church  of  less  than  fifty 
members,  applies  for  Home  Mission  aid  to  any  Conference  or  Board 
or  Committee,  the  granting  of  such  aid  should  be  preceded  by  careful 
examination  of  the  field,  to  discover  whether  the  church  is  needed  in 
the  interest  of  the  Kingdom,  whether  there  are  other  churches  with  a 
larger  membership  or  another  denomination  maintaining  a  pastor  in 
the  community.  Unless  the  conditions  require  the  small  church  for 
the  effective  supply  of  gospel  ministry  to  a  needy  people  not  otherwise 
served,  the  church  of  less  than  one  hundred  members  should  be  re- 
quired to  give  exceptional  reasons  before  it  is  aided  out  of  the  Lord's 
money. 

n  this  church  is  to  be  maintained  because  there  is  no  adequate  min- 
istry to  the  community,  or  because  there  are  people  without  the  gospel 
in  numbers,  or  for  any  other  reason,  the  maintenance  granted  should 
support  a  settled  pastor.  His  work  may  result  in  the  building  up  of  a 
strong  church  of  over  two  hundred  members;  for  a  membership  of 
less  than  two  hundred  in  the  country  is  unsatisfactory  and  unreliable. 
In  a  population  diminishing  in  number,  as  the  rural  population  of  Ohio, 
it  is  not  wise  to  devote  to  the  maintenance  of  needless  small  churches 
the  money  which  should  go  to  the  growing  communities  in  the  far 

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West,  or  to  the  needy  sections  in  counties  of  Ohio,  where  there  is  in- 
adequate preaching  of  the  gospel.  In  the  Ohio  population  the  resident 
pastor  alone  is  the  effective  Christian  minister. 

5.  We  have  shown  that  the  country  church  in  Ohio  is  generally  too 
small  in  size.  We  are  reminded  constantly  by  all  our  friends  who 
study  the  country  problem  that  the  country  church  is  also  too  narrow 
in  its  sympathies, — too  small  in  the  interests  it  promotes.  We  know 
that  wherever  throughout  the  land  the  rural  churches  thrive  and  grow 
in  size  and  strength,  they  are  discovered  upon  close  study  to  be  en- 
larging and  deepening  the  sympathies  of  their  people.  They  give  of 
their  means  to  the  great  missionary  interests.  They  cultivate  the  social 
life  of  their  communities.  They  promote  better  farming.  They 
champion  temperance,  local  option  or  effectively  oppose  the  saloon. 
The  successful  country  churches  are  bearing  everywhere  those  burdens 
of  human  sympathy  which  would  seem  to  weigh  them  down,  but  are 
found  to  be  a  universal  badge  of  success.  The  country  church  that 
travels  light  does  not  travel  far.  It  is  the  small  church  with  a  mean 
spirit,  that  gives  to  no  mission  cause  and  contributes  only  to  its  building 
and  its  preacher, — as  little  as  possible  to  the  building  and  less  than  is 
decent  to  the  minister, — which  dies  in  a  short  time. 

We  recommend,  therefore,  to  ministers  and  church  officers  that  the 
church,  of  whatever  denomination,  must  be  made  a  center  of  all  the 
interests  of  the  community.  In  the  language  of  Henry  Wallace, 
"Unless  the  country  church  resolves  that  it  will  be  a  community  church 
rather  than  a  denominational  church,  it  will  not  make  very  much 
progress.  In  doing  community  service  the  country  church  is  getting 
back  to  the  teachings  of  the  Master.  In  building  barricades  from 
material  not  quarried  out  of  the  Rock  of  Zion  to  defend  itself  against 
other  churches,  it  is  getting  away  from  the  teaching  of  the  Master  and 
does  not  deserve  to  prosper." 


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